Sample Solution

beauty and the imagination. Whilst both T.S Eliot and Keats explore aspects of influence over their art, the two have extremely dissimilar perceptions of it.
Tradition has gained extremely negative connotations over time, believed to entail strict boundaries and parallel conservative ideas, many immediately shy away from it. T.S Eliot found this very early on in his exploration of the idea, in his essay ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’ he writes, ‘we pretend to find what is individual, what is the peculiar essence of the man’ . The specific use of the verb ‘pretend’ introduces a falsity into critical reading whilst additionally suggesting that many have to ‘pretend’ because there isn’t individuality in writing, just the techniques and ideas that past canons have created and honed. Alternatively, the act of pretending could be exploring the fact that these traditional aspects of literature are subtly integrated into literature, so much so that the reader does not realise what they are reading is traditional. The allusion of individuality hiding tradition is supported by his statement, ‘no poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists’ . Evidently there is this idea that art and poetry have no exclusive owner, it is shared through many minds over may years and only becomes of value when linked to the past. This sense of falsity is further developed, ‘we endeavour to find something that can be isolated in order to be enjoyed’ . By using the inclusive ‘we’ and making individuality synonymous with isolation, Eliot is reflecting how narrow the concept of individuality versus tradition has become throughout literature.
Keats, on the other hand, is strongly in favour of individuality, ‘the excellence of every Art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeables evaporate, from their being in close relationship with Beauty & Truth’ . There is a clear hierarchy here, passion, or in other words intensity, followed by